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The 7 Most Deadly Resume Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes that Could Cost you the Job!

FORT LAUDERDALE – It’s time to Stop the Insanity, everyone! Tweaking a resume riddled with mistakes is just nutty! Your resume is your first introduction to potential employers. If it is not flawless, then you will never get a second chance to make a first impression.

You need to start treating your resume like an International Calling Card with a $1.06 balance remaining. Desperate times require desperate measures! If you have at least two or three resume mistakes, potential employers will never give your job application a second chance because you ran out of time to highlight your accomplishments. These resume mistakes could be costing you tens of thousands of dollars!

To make sure your resume and job application stay clear of the DELETE key, you need to avoid these 7 deadly resume mistakes to help you stand out among the crowd and secure your Dream Job:

The eyes have it. Yes, the eyes have it. So many times when you prepare your resume, your brain skips over data that you feel very secure only to find out later that it was riddled with mistakes. First, double check your email address and phone number on your resume for accuracy. One single typo could cost you the job by making it impossible for your potential employers to contact you. Ask a friend right now to review your resume. Always get a fresh pair of eyes to critique your resume before sending it out.

2. Grammaticul Errors (sorry, spelling).

Employers and hiring managers are often amazed by how many resumes they have to DELETE simply for typos and careless spelling. They don’t have the time to fight with typos! If you make grammatical errors on your resume, it sends a clear message to a potential employer that you are negligent and sloppy with attention, flaws that could lead to poor performance on the job. The #1 grammatical error is the use of the words “where” and “were”. Even if you make a wrong word choice, they might sound the same but they are certainly not interchangeable. Grammatical errors on your resume spell trouble for your job search. You can avoid them by getting a friend to proofread your resume. The best advice from the world’s top resume experts is to get a fresh pair of eyes to critique your resume. Ask them to read it out load (ooops! out “loud”) – another common mistake. Stay clear of these typo death traps. They are career killers!

3. Stop Using One Resume for every position!

Using one resume of every position is just as horrible as make tons of grammatical errors on your resume. Sooner or later, this deadly resume mistake is going to catch up with you and you’ll never know that it just cost you the job. Employers need to feel confident that you are the one for the job. They are looking for someone who is perfectly tailored for the position before they even consider contacting you. You should look at your resume like a calling card with several numbers set to “speed dial”. Each preset calls a different company and speaks directly to the right person at the right time for a specific job vacancy. When your resume is tailored for the unique job vacancy, you start to look like the perfect fit for the job!

4. Why is your resume so short….are you hiding something?

One of the most deadly resume mistakes people make day in and day out is a too-short resume. You might be sending a message unintentionally that you are hiding something about your past. On one hand, hiring managers don’t have time to comb through non-essential and tedious information on a multi-page resume, however, when done correctly, they are open to a longer one page and a half resume if done right. If you have one and a half pages with an accurate summary of your experience, education and accomplishments, employers will contact you!

5. Is it Amateur Night? Your layout….seriously!

Hiring managers are increasingly looking at the cosmetic appeal of your resume. It doesn’t have to look like you are a Photoshop expert, however it should reflect how well you carry yourself. We live in an visually intense world. Hiring managers reflect on font selection and bullet point alignment. Did you know that hiring managers and employers love bullet points? Your resume layout and presentation can make a world of difference. Bullet points, especially in lengthy accomplishment sections allow hiring managers to retain and remember your information more easily for a quick recap later when it is time to select those select few who will be contacted to set up an interview. Ask yourself, “is your resume difficult to read?”. Did you use too much white space? If you want your resume to have a touch of class, pay close attention to fonts like Calibri. The right font could help you get the Job!

6. Stop wasting time on past job duties!

Hiring managers are not interested in fluffy descriptions of your past job duties. They want to know what you will bring to the table. Instead, highlight your accomplishments and be as detailed as possible. If you saved your previous employer $50,000 in inventory costs, or solved a logistics problem that generated over $1.5 million in net profits, highlight it on your resume. Accomplishments are like pre-recorded voicemails on your calling card that you can set to just about anyone you choose. If you only have $1.06 remaining, act as if you only have enough time for a hiring manager and employer to hear about what cost-cutting programs or problem solving you accomplished. Make every second count.You may only have 15 seconds of fame! Do everything you can to step outside the box and away from looking like a generic candidate! If you are a job candidate who likes to think outside of the box, your resume should SCREAM this character trait. It’s what employers are looking for right now!

7. Just like in Speed Dating, irrelevant Information Kills the Mood.

If you include an “other information” section or a “volunteer” section on your resume, you are wasting the hiring manager’s time. Nowadays, everything is PC (“political correctness”). Avoid listing political and religious affiliations.

Irrelevant information has no place on your professional resume. If you include it, it’s kind of obvious where your resume will end up — at the bottom of the trash bin or in the DELETE folder gathering pixel dust.

Are you optimizing your resume every week? If not, you are making another big mistake! The times are changing. The job market is constantly evolving. Employers may run a search this week and you are not a good fit today but you’re perfect next Monday!

Make sure you have a great Objective Statement to help the hiring manager keep in mind what they need and what you want. Avoid nonsense phrases like “References Upon Request”. Of course you have references and at the right time, employers will ask for them. Use bullet points and tweak your resume frequently to find the right combination/ratio of text to white space to keep your hiring manager engaged and focused on the bullet points of your accomplishments. Too much white space can send the message that you don’t know how to think outside of the box and too many bullet points can suggest that you are overly dramatic and wordy.

Yes, there are a lot to consider when it comes to writing the perfect resume. You can’t squeeze blood from a stone, so don’t be afraid to start over fresh and write a brand new resume. No sense in trying to get a different result from the same action, unless you want to get on the fast track to INSANITY. If you are tweaking a resume that was flawed from the start, then you are just tweaking flaws…and you’re wasting time.

Get the best help. Try to create the best resume you can and send it out to the best hiring managers and potential employers in your industry as fast as possible. Make every day count!